Crowder College could see tuition increase

Tuition at Crowder College could jump by 4.6 percent next year, pending approval by the college’s board of trustees.

Wes Franklin

Tuition at Crowder College could jump by 4.6 percent next year, pending approval by the college’s board of trustees.

On Thursday, the board considered a rate increase of $3 for in-district students, $4 for in-state and $5 for out-of-state students. Current tuition per credit hour is $65, $91 and $118, respectively. A final vote on the measure will be made next month.

Crowder President Alan Marble said utility costs were the driving force behind proposing the tuition hike. According to Marble, the college paid out $25,000 last month alone in just electricity costs and that the utility budget for this year is already depleted. He attributed rising rates and more buildings in use on Crowder’s four campuses to the higher costs of operating.

Marble said mandatory hikes in retirement pensions and as high as 12 percent increases in health insurance premiums for Crowder employees were also forcing the college to look at raising tuition.

“Just (health insurance) is going to eat up almost everything we’re asking for (in higher tuition),” Marble said. “In fact, we may find by next month that what we’re asking for is not quite enough. I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The college’s much touted wind turbine could offset some of the utility costs when the machine is ultimately connected to the grid, Marble said, but won’t make up for energy spent by the near 50,000 square foot Arnold Farber building after its completion this summer.

And while Crowder has made big strides in student enrollment of late, Marble said tuition generated by those extra students only makes for one third of the college’s revenue, the other two thirds split between state funding and district property taxes, both of which have slowed down.

“We tried to calculate all those things into the mix, and we’re still just going to have to pay more,” Marble said.

He said other area colleges and universities, specifically Missouri Southern and Pitt State, are raising their rates next year as well. As for community college’s, Marble said Crowder still ranks in the lower middle in tuition costs.